2015-02-26

Daily Round Up: Fall Of The West Edition Continues

At the moment, we're seeing in the flesh what putting middling, mediocre minds in positions of power provides.

It's not pretty.

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MIT architect behind Obamacare Jonathan Gruber overcharges state of Vermont. 

Look. The guy is as dishonorable (and disreputable at this point) as he is smug. That's what happens when you give private citizens access to public funds.

They take it.

Duh.

I have to say, Vermont has been quite sober and responsible in their dealing with the public purse. Recall, they decided to not opt for single-payer because of its costs. You would think a liberal nanny-state like VT would jump on SP no matter what. But it's not the case.

Never mind how it would spiral out of control down the line.

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This excerpt (sent to me from a concerned citizen) is from the WSJ (paywall): "Greece Struggles to Get Citizens to Pay Their Taxes"

"At the end of 2014, Greeks owed their government about €76 billion ($86 billion) in unpaid taxes accrued over decades; the government says only €9 billion of that can be recovered, with most of the rest lost to insolvency.
 

Billions more in taxes are owed on never-reported revenue from Greece’s vast underground economy, which was estimated before the crisis to equal more than a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product.

“Greeks consider taxes as theft,” said Aristides Hatzis, an associate professor of law and economics at the University of Athens. “Normally taxes are considered the price you have to pay for a just state, but this is not accepted by the Greek mentality.”"


The Greek mentality, of course, being give us free shit that we don't want to pay for. Something Quebec excels at. Except, the difference being Quebec has the advantage of being in a larger, wealthier and more advanced country where they can extract (or extort depending where you sit) more cash from other provinces in the Federation to pay for their unfunded welfare excesses.

It's not just Greece. The West has created this entitlement monster and it doesn't know how to quell or kill it.

Think Godzilla-King Kong and that alien monster in Cloverfield all rolled into one.

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How do you say, "Mommy, what happens when the gravy oil train ends?" in Norwegian?

"Oil slump threatens easy life of affluent Norwegians"

 "The average Norwegian has just gotten too much. We have a welfare economy and an expectation from youth, who expect wealth to come down from heaven," Sunde said. "When we come down to periods like this, it comes down to good old values of working hard and competing. A country like Norway needs to go through that."

I see Big Fjord Troubles on the horizon.

/narrows gaze. 

***

Speaking of progressive and enlightened Scandinavians:

 "Bird watching has long been a popular and seemingly harmless weekend activity in Sweden. Its innocence, however, came to an abrupt end when many of the country's bird lovers were suddenly confronted with allegations of racism. "

Ah. Let's not deal with racism in any meaningful manner. Let's just play with words.

It's a new hobby on the left here in North America too. Change the words. What's the big deal, man? PROGRESS!

Here's my take on Scandinavia. From what I can detect from afar, racism is pervasive in those countries. So, to the bureaucratic asshats in power, it makes sense to project and treat racism with political correctness lunacy. 

It's pretty obvious. They're applying cologne to treat bad odor.

***

Heard Gordan Mianscum recently passed away. If you recall, rode the streets of Montreal on a wheel-chair that looked like a stretcher.

I remember seeing him in the news in the 80s.

*** 

Tweeting someone to call them back is a pretty douchey move. Something tells me Politifact wasn't interested in getting in contact with Williamson.

Gotta protect that narrative.

Kevin D. Williamson @KevinNR
Jesus H. Christ, you useless rube--I have an office with a receptionist and everything. Pick up a goddamned telephone, genius. @loujacobson

Kevin D. Williamson @KevinNR
You feckless, gormless, servile, water-carrying lackeys are an embarrassment to a once-proud trade. @loujacobson @AngieHolan

I think he's angry.

Rightfully so.

***

Speaking of the media, gotta love how they're engaging in tu quoque nonsense in defending Brian Williams.

Look. They can find all the bull they want on Bill O'Reilly, but it won't change what Williams did.

***

Polar bears invading Black Tickle, Nfld. 

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Marie Harf 'clarifies' 'terrorists need jerbs' position. No it's not 'too nuanced for some' you arrogant, sniveling Democrat.

I loathe how political civil servants let slip that mask of superiority. 

And note to John Kerry. I'll make fun of whoever I damn please including you.

Make frivolous comments, say erroneous things, be elusive or contradictory and you will feel MY WRATH.

Which is worse than Khan's. 

Be wary of people who use the word 'nuance' in such a manner.  

***

Whenever you want an example of revisionism or just plain historical spin, just go to Salon for stupidity.

Apparently, America is one gigantic progressive experiment.

"...The fact is, our entire history – from our revolution to healthcare reform – is filled with progressive accomplishments, and it’s hard to sell the Conservative brand to people who know that history. "

Notice what this buffoon did. He simply reworked history to fit his narrative.

The stupid. It hurts.

***

Scott Walker doesn't care what the media thinks. Reminds me of Giuliani.

The fact they're trying to make an issue of him not having a University degree points to their group think credentialism.

***

My name is Frankenstein! Or Frankensteeno:

"It sounds like the plot of a bad horror film, but doctors are gearing up to do the world’s first head transplant.

Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero wants to take the head from someone with an incurable illness and graft it on to a healthy body.

He claims the first operation could be done in just two years’ time."





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Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice-President of the United States.

In all his vacuous glory.

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In the 'you don't say?' files of academia: 

"Dishonesty and Selection into Public Service: Evidence from India".
Students who cheat on a simple laboratory task are more likely to prefer public sector jobs in India. We show that cheating on this task predicts corrupt behaviour by bureaucrats, implying that it is a meaningful predictor of future corruption..."

No shit.

Reminded me of this:

"By running an experiment among Germans collecting their passports or ID cards in the citizen centers of Berlin, we find that individuals with an East German family background cheat significantly more on an abstract task than those with a West German family background. The longer individuals were exposed to socialism, the more likely they were to cheat on our task. While it was recently argued that markets decay morals (Falk and Szech, 2013), we provide evidence that other political and economic regimes such as socialism might have an even more detrimental effect on individuals’ behavior."

Remember kids. Socialism = civilization.

***

The Lindros clan were pains in the asses then and are pains in the asses now.

Eric Lindros has launched a $250,000 defamation lawsuit against onetime NHL referee Paul Stewart and the Huffington Post, after Stewart wrote a column for the online news website that allegedly made the former Philadelphia Flyers star forward look like a "dickhead."

Something tells me he's not getting it.

***

More inanity from the New York Times (sorry lost the link. In any event, it's not like it's in me to make this shit up:
"As Cuba opens the door wider to private enterprise, the gap between the haves and have-­nots — and between whites and blacks — that the revolution sought to diminish is growing more evident. […]
Raising the [U.S.] remittance cap, along with allowing more Americans to visit Cuba and other steps toward normal diplomatic relations, will help "support the Cuban people," the Obama administration contends.
But some will enjoy that support more than others. Cuban economists say that whites are 2.5 times more likely than blacks to receive remittances, leaving many in crumbling neighborhoods like Little Swamp nearly invisible in the rise of commerce, especially the restaurants and bed­-and-breakfasts that tourists tend to favor.
"Remittances have produced new forms of inequality, particularly racial inequality," said Alejandro de la Fuente, director of the Afro­Latin American Research Institute at Harvard University."
Always remember. They sucked communist cock back in the day. And they still do.

***

Speaking of failed liberal journalism on the NYT model, wonder if they wrote about places like Holdomor.

Probably not.

"Extermination by hunger" or "Hunger-extermination";derived from 'морити голодом', "to kill by starvation" was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1932 and 1933 that killed an estimated 2.5-7.5 million Ukrainians, with millions more counted in demographic estimates. It was part of the wider disaster, Soviet famine of 1932–33, which affected the major grain-producing areas of the country. "

***

"A Mankato man was jailed for months while he waited for the state crime lab to process suspected drugs that turned out to be vitamins.

Joseph Burrell was arrested in November and charged with two felony counts of drug possession. His bail was set at $250,000. The 31-year-old Burrell says he's not happy it took so long for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to process the evidence."

The war on drugs.

It wreaks havoc on civil society DESTROYING families and communities.

***

"I trust science. I'm a Democrat."

The only science they trust is the one they blindly like.

I weep for their side.

***

We knew the Climate System Change Inquisition was coming.

Remember. When you fail to debate in good fatih, you want to silence the opposition.  In the end, these socialist-animists who worship Sock Puppet enviro-gods always over reach. Hopefully, this is their tipping point.

"Let the climate inquisition begin. The ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, has written to seven universities about seven researchers who harbor impure thoughts about climate change.

One of the targets is Steven Hayward, a blogger, author and academic now at Pepperdine University (as well as an occasional contributor to National Review). As Hayward puts it, the spirit of the inquiry is, “Are you now or have you ever been a climate skeptic?”

Hey, Raul. Go fuck yourself.

Seriously.

***


I just don't get what the ATF (an oppressive Nixonian agency that's seen better days - if ever) is up to here.

Seems like Sandy Hook has left the 'reality based community' unhinged in its unsubstantiated hysteria.

They will never quit until they get the control they want. Going after ammo was the next step.
 
"Gun-rights groups are in an uproar over an ammunition ban proposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF says it wants to ban M855 ball ammunition, a .223 (or 5.56 mm) rifle bullet that has been used by American citizens for decades. The ATF says it wants to ban this popular bullet because it is “armor piercing.”

The law at the basis of this debate is the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA). As amended, the GCA prohibits the import, manufacture and distribution of “armor piercing ammunition” as defined by a few terms Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is attempting to broaden.
The definition for what constitutes “armor piercing” reads: “a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely … from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium.”

Now, to be as nitpicky as the law, the M855 ball ammunition the ATF wants to ban as “armor piercing” doesn’t have a core made of the metals listed in what legally makes a bullet “armor piercing.” The M855 actually has a lead core with a steel tip. Also, the M855 is traditionally a rifle cartridge and the ban only covers handgun ammunition. The DOJ argues this doesn’t stop them because the law stipulates they can ban a bullet that “may be used in a handgun.” And, after all, any cartridge may be used in a handgun."
 
This is the action and reasoning of a bureaucratic entity that will never stop in the demand to know where the guns are.


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